Hello, We use MS Access 2000 (I know, we're migrating away from it) as an application to automatically dial phone numbers. The old phone system we have allowed the call representative using the application to take their phone off hook, push a button in the app, and the app would send the phone number to the phone system and dial the number. We are moving to Asterisk for our main phone system. A middleware program has been written to watch for dial events in a database, then the program calls the Zap station the call rep is at using the manager interface. Is there a better way to do this? The complaint we are getting now is the call rep doesn't want their phone to ring when making a call. Can the manager interface give a phone number to dial on an off hook Zap line? Thanks! -- Jason Martin Metrix Matrix, Inc. 785 Elmgrove Road, Building 1, Rochester, NY 14624 Office: 888-865-0065 Ext. 202 Mobile: (585) 721-8679
On Wed, 27 Jun 2007, Jason Martin wrote:> Is there a better way to do this? The complaint we are getting now is > the call rep doesn't want their phone to ring when making a call. Can > the manager interface give a phone number to dial on an off hook Zap > line?You would need to somehow associate the off-hook Zap channel with the particular user in the middleware layer. In principle, there is not a good way to reimplement what you are suggesting, because what you are suggesting appears to carry the logical implication that Zap can somehow dial on *behalf* of the phone station while it is off-hook, or for that matter on-hook, without calling back to the station in order to bridge the call after there is progress on the far end. I know of no way to do this. What you might be able to do to ease your complaints, though--assuming this is not already how it's implemented--is to call the destination number first, and only call the "originating" Zap station back once progress/ringing on the far end has begun. The "events" in the Manager API should provide for this, I think. Otherwise, this type of click-to-call functionality doesn't work so well with analog phones. If you had IP handsets you might be able to find a way to cleverly RPC a call origination request into an actual handset, or at least exert finer control (at the SIP level) over how and when the agent phone is put into the loop of the call scenario with ringback suppression, custom indicator lights, and things like that. -- Alex -- Alex Balashov Evariste Systems Web : http://www.evaristesys.com/ Tel : +1-678-954-0670 Direct : +1-678-954-0671
Look at TAPI driver for asterisk, here are some: http://www.snapanumber.com/ http://www.voip-info.org/wiki/view/Asterisk+TAPI http://www.thirdlane.com/outlookdialer.htm The last one being specific for Outlook, so I'm not sure if it's real TAPI or just an outlook add in. On 6/27/07, Jason Martin <jmartin at metrixmatrix.com> wrote:> Hello, > > We use MS Access 2000 (I know, we're migrating away from it) as an application > to automatically dial phone numbers. The old phone system we have allowed the > call representative using the application to take their phone off hook, push > a button in the app, and the app would send the phone number to the phone > system and dial the number. We are moving to Asterisk for our main phone > system. A middleware program has been written to watch for dial events in a > database, then the program calls the Zap station the call rep is at using the > manager interface. > > Is there a better way to do this? The complaint we are getting now is the call > rep doesn't want their phone to ring when making a call. Can the manager > interface give a phone number to dial on an off hook Zap line? > > Thanks! > -- > Jason Martin > Metrix Matrix, Inc. > 785 Elmgrove Road, Building 1, Rochester, NY 14624 > Office: 888-865-0065 Ext. 202 > Mobile: (585) 721-8679 > > > _______________________________________________ > --Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com-- > > asterisk-users mailing list > To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: > http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users >
On 6/27/07, Jason Martin <jmartin at metrixmatrix.com> wrote:> Hello, > > We use MS Access 2000 (I know, we're migrating away from it) as an application > to automatically dial phone numbers. The old phone system we have allowed the > call representative using the application to take their phone off hook, push > a button in the app, and the app would send the phone number to the phone > system and dial the number. We are moving to Asterisk for our main phone > system. A middleware program has been written to watch for dial events in a > database, then the program calls the Zap station the call rep is at using the > manager interface. > > Is there a better way to do this? The complaint we are getting now is the call > rep doesn't want their phone to ring when making a call. Can the manager > interface give a phone number to dial on an off hook Zap line? >Why not put the off hook zap lines into a meetme room and then as you're dialing lines out join them to the meetme room? That way the zap lines can stay off hook. That also leaves open the ability down the road to have a manager monitor/barge these conversations. -- Bird's The Word Technologies, Inc. http://www.btwtech.com/
We're really happy with SIP Tapi: http://sourceforge.net/projects/siptapi/ http://www.enum.at/index.php?id=479 We've been trying to document our setup at: http://projects.bebr.ufl.edu/wiki/AsteriskTAPI We like it as it requires no manager interface (it uses SIP Refer) to be turned on. It can be a little awkward with voicemail if you use it to call yourself, but you can pick one extension that will call everyone.> Is there a better way to do this? The complaint we are > getting now is the call > rep doesn't want their phone to ring when making a call. Can > the manager > interface give a phone number to dial on an off hook Zap line?Unfortunately, we haven't found a way around this either, except to have autoanswer on the phone. Some phones could probably be configured to autoanswer for some callerids or lines, but if you find anything else interesting about this or non-ringing auto-dialing, I'd be curious to hear as well! Martin Smith, Systems Developer martins at bebr.ufl.edu Bureau of Economic and Business Research University of Florida (352) 392-0171 Ext. 221